Categories: Articles

Picking Your Brain For Better Ideas

Being an original thinker is near-impossible. Combining ideas to come up with something original is more likely.

It’s a truth. The best creatives are the ones who are able to find a new middle in between two (or more) ideas that already exist. This is the kind of work that makes people smirk, remember and feel warm. The challenge, of course, is in finding enough inspiration… and that it’s balanced so that there’s not too many inputs (this creates analysis/paralysis… when there’s too much of something, and nothing stays down long enough to percolate). There are certain individuals who are amazing at curating (have you checked out Media Redefined?). Then, there are the curators who take the things that have existed, and add their own perspective. This is the world of Maria Popova and her incredible newsletter/website, Brain Pickings.

Life-learnings for you to pull from.

In 2013, Brain Pickings turned seven. To celebrate, Popova wrote an article featuring her seven learnings after seven years of reading, writing and living. It was such a powerful read, that the people at Holstee turned the learnings into a letterpress poster. The basis of the thinking can also be seen below in a presentation that Popova gave earlier this year at The DO Lectures event called, Build Pockets of Stillness Into Your Life.

This is some of the most profound, inspiring and powerful lessons you will ever watch on how to live a life worth living…

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.